Torygraph columnist Peter Oborne has quit the paper in what appears to be a principled stand against journalistic corruption. He says the newspaper that made him a household name committed a fraud on its readers in order to keep an advertising contract with the HSBC bank.

He said it was a “most sinister development” at the paper, where he claimed the traditional distinction between the advertising and editorial department had collapsed.

He said he had intended to leave quietly but had a “duty to make all this public” following the Telegraph’s coverage of last week’s revelations about HSBC’s Swiss banking arm, which helped wealthy customers dodge taxes and conceal millions of dollars of assets, doling out bundles of untraceable cash and advising clients on how to circumvent domestic tax authorities.

Oborne said readers “needed a microscope to find” the paper’s reporting of the HSBC scandal, which received many pages of coverage in other UK national titles including the Guardian, Financial Times, Daily Mail and Times.

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My only note of disapproval is his reference to this as a sinister ‘development’, implying it is a new or unusual policy at the Torygraph to not publish news that is against the owners’ interests. He may not have noticed it before (yeah right), but it has been standard practice since, say, well before I was born.

I think Peter Oborne is what you might call an “old school” journalist, he was probably brought up in an environment where integrity counted for something. Perhaps this was the final straw for him, no longer willing to knuckle under and write it their way. Many “young” journalists are just too afraid to stand up as they are worried they will lose their “privileged” jobs. I wish him well in retirement.